“UNI4INNO” – Project launched at Kiev Chamber of Commerce
Kiev. The Kiev Chamber of Commerce was the hosting institution for the kick-off meeting that took place in the frame of the Tempusproject “UNI4INNO”, which is coordinated by University of Alicante, on February 23rd, 2010.
The European project UNI4INNO (“ Boosting the Knowledge Triangle by Establishing Innovation Offices in Ukrainian Higher Education Institutions”) was launched on 23rd of February 2010 at the Kiev Chamber of Commerce. The UNI4INNO is a three year project funded with the support of the European Commission within the frameworkof the TEMPUS program. The University of Alicante Spain) is the project´s coordinator. WUS Austria is project partner besides Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), University of Bologna (Italy), the core beneficiaries consisting of 6 Ukrainian universities (Crimean University of the Humanities, Donbass State Engineering Academy, Lviv Polytechnic National University, National Aerospace University, National Metallurgical Academy of Ukraine and Odessa I.I Mechnikov National University), the Kiev Chamber of Commerce, the Ukrainian State Institute of Innovation Technologies and Content of Education and the Ministry of Educationand Science of the Ukraine.
Representatives from the partner institutions were present at the kick off meeting in Kiev, which was also attended by coordinators from the Ukrainian National Tempus Office. The main objectives and expected outcomes of the project were presented, as well as the financial and administrative issues and the work plan for the first project year. Every partner in attendance shared their experiences and needs with regards to institutional innovation support structures, as well as their commitment to the project´s activities.
The UNI4INNO project objectives are to sustainably strengthen strategic, managerial andadministrative capacities of 6 Ukrainian universities in identifying, managing and generating value from their intangible assets, and enhancing participation in cooperative research activities,through implementation of a series of targeted capacity building measures. In addition, the project intends to promote the Innovation culture within Ukrainian Higher Education Institutions through the establishment and implementation of innovation offices and innovation support services. The methodology applied to achieve the envisaged outputs is reinforced by the substantial expertise of the European partners in this field and the strength and combination of the Ukrainian partners, involving relevant government authorities, the business sector, and other associated institutions.
The role of WUS Austria in this project focuses on providing inputs for trainings and strategy development, conducting quality control and sharing experiences capacity/institutional building, linking HE and economy and knowledge transfer as well as lessons learned from similar projects (e.g. R&D Capacities, www.rd-capacities.org) or initiatives.
Once again, WUS Austria wants to thank all involved partner for their valuable contributions and especially the University of Alicante and the Kiev Chamber of Commerce respectively its staff for their professional organisation, very heartily welcome and generous hospitality. WUS Austria is very much looking forward to a fruitful cooperation with all partners within and beyondt his interesting and challenging project.
If you want to know more about this Tempus Project, please visit www.uni4inno.eu.
Contacts:
WUS Austria: Clemens Juriga (clemens.juriga@wus-austria.org)
Coordinators/University of Alicante: with Roberto Escarré (r.escarre@ua.es), María Barluenga (barluenga@ua.es) and Nadejda Patras (nadia.patras@ua.es) from the International Project Management Office of UA
